Blog Party!!! And some new layouts...

Tomorrow starts the Feeling Scrappy Blog Party! We are celebrating two years!! There will be lots of challenges, info and prizes so be sure to stop by daily!! http://feelingscrappyclasses.blogspot.com/

I also got a few layouts done over the weekend for the crop at Scrap 4 Life. Here are some of them:
(Thi one isn't really crooked in real life! LOL)

This was a scraplift of a layout by Kari Ann-

I hope you had a great weekend!!

Bowling

We took the kids bowling for the first time today. They had a lot of fun-even Abby got to push the ball down the lane! Here are a couple of shots:

Menu Planning Monday!

I have my menu done on time this week! :) We are using up some leftovers and using what we have for our meals.

Monday- Sticky Chicken, Ham Fried Rice (I'll just wing it as I go! LOL), steamed brocolli
Tuesday- Homemade Pizza and breadsticks (I split my dough recipe in half and use half for a thin crust pizza and half for breadsticks), salad
Wednesday- Ham and cheese omlets, hashbrowns
Thursday- Spaghetti with meatballs(frozen meatballs and a jar of sauce), salad
Friday-Crockpot black beans, rice with tortillas and toppings (new recipe for the beans)
Saturday- Chicken and dumplings
Sunday- Crock Pot Beef roast (not sure what else with this yet!)

Easter

We had a quiet Easter at home this year. We missed seeing all of our wonderful family members!! But it's hard to get together for every holiday when you live far apart. We love you all and miss you all! Here are a couple of photos from yesterday. I didn't get very many that weren't blurry from the kids running around looking for eggs or playing. :)

Sticky Chicken

This is so easy and yummy!! This is a recipe from the Scrapshare cookbook that isn't available to buy anymore. This sauce is so good, sometimes I double the amount!!

Sticky Chicken
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 425°. In large bowl, whisk all ingredients together. Coat chicken pieces in mix. Place in greased baking dish. Spoon remaining sauce over chicken. Bake 20-25 minutes, basting every 5 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken and Dumplings

This is sooo yummy!! It's a combination of differnet recipes I have found and tried. We all love this!

Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients:
6 cups water
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 chicken bouillon cubes
½ tsp celery seed
1 ½ tsp poultry seasoning
¼ tsp pepper

Directions:
1. Boil water and add the chicken.
2. Simmer until chicken is cooked through (30-40 minutes).
3. Remove chicken from pot.
4. Add bouillon, veggies and seasonings. Bring to a boil.
5. Cut meat into chunks & add to pot.
6. Simmer about 20-30 minutes or until the veggies are tender. Prepare the dough for your dumplings while it simmers.
7. Taste the broth. Add a little salt if it needs it but it probably won’t since bouillon is salty. Turn heat so the broth is simmering slowly.
8. Scoop out small rounded scoops of the dough with a teaspoon and drop them into the soup on top of everything. Just let them rest on top. Don’t push down on them.
9. Put the lid on the pot and let it slowly simmer for a full 20 minutes. DO NOT LIFT THE LID!

Dumplings (this makes a lot of dumplings…feel free to cut it in half. I don't, but we really like the dumplings!LOL))
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
2 ½ cups flour
1 TBS baking powder
1 tsp each salt and sugar

Directions for the dumplings:
1. In a big bowl, mix the oil and milk.
2. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. Mix it up until it forms a stiff batter. Set aside until you need it.

Layouts and upcoming classes

Here are a couple of layouts from the sketch class on Feeling Scrappy that recently ended. The sketch classes are so much fun! I am always inspired to do a ton of pages. We have another one coming up in a couple of months...you should totally check it out. Before then, we have an Ink class and a Bling class!!! See all the Feeling Scrappy classes here- http://feelingscrappyclasses.blogspot.com/search/label/Classes

Sketch by Stacy Killion-guest designer

Sketch by Jayne Jones

Blog Party!!!

Feeling Scrappy is turning TWO!!! We're celebrating with a blog party! I hope you'll join us!!


Here's the scoop from the FS blog-

We are celebrating our 2nd birthday with a big blog bash! Join us during the week of April 20th - we will be posting lots of fun things (more than once a day!) so be sure to mark your calendars!

In addition to some great prizes from Feeling Scrappy, we have some great prize packages from:
Paper Popsicles
Starhitched Wagon
That's Jazzy Stamp Dreams

We will be posting some sneak peeks of the prizes soon! :)

Guest Designer at Scrap 4 Life!

I'm so excited to announce that I get to be the Guest Designer at Scrap 4 Life this month!! They sent me the most fabulous Basic Grey Sultry goodies to work with! These papers are awesome! And I LOVE the chipboard embellies that coordinate with them! These pages came together sooo quickly for me and I love how they turned out. You can get the papers and chipboard here. (Well, the store is actually closed right now since they are packing up and moving...but when it opens again, they will be available. :) )

Here are my pages I designed for them (I will have more to post later in the month!!!).



Have a great day!!

Green Chicken Chili Casserole-Updated!!

Ok, I know I already posted a recipe for this, but here is an updated version with my changes. I tend to make a lot of changes to things while I am cooking and rarely write down what I do so I can't ever seem to remember! LOL Anyway, I wrote down exactly what I did this time and I think it suits our taste buds better than the original (so funny how everyone is so different!). I also modified it to feed our family-using less chicken (but the same amount of sauce). It was enough to stuff us all and have just enough for lunch for hubby tomorrow.

Green Chili Chicken Casserole

1 cup diced onion
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 can mild green enchilada sauce
1 small can of diced green chilis
1 cup sour cream (I used fat free)
1 can cream of chicken soup (I used the lowfat kind)
Optional-1/4 tsp (or more) cumin
Optional-1/2 tsp dried cilantro (or a couple TBSP of fresh cilantro if you have it!)
salt and pepper to taste
4-5 flour tortillas-cut/torn into large pieces (I used 5 of the soft taco size)
2 cups cooked and diced or shredded chicken
2 cups shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but pepper jack would be good, too!)


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Saute the onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil or cooking spray over medium heat for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the soup, enchilada sauce, green chilis and sour cream and stir over medium/low heat.
4. Add the cumin and cilantro if you want to use it. I think it adds a nice flavor. Fresh cilantro would be wonderful but I didn't have any so I used dried. And the ONLY place to get dried cilantro, in my opinion, is the Spice House. It is the only one that actually adds a real cilantro flavor when added to food. I have tried several and this is the only one I like! I get all of my spices there, by the way.
5. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired. I used a few grinds of fresh pepper and a couple small pinches of kosher salt.
6. Add the cooked chicken and heat through but don't boil.
7. Spray an 8 1/2 x 11 baking dish with cooking spray. Add about a cup of the sauce mixture (or enough to cover the bottom of the dish). I tried to get mostly sauce and not much chicken for this layer...but I don't think it really matters!
8. Place a layer of tortillas over the sauce. They can overlap a bit. It just makes it a lot easier to serve and eat if the tortillas aren't whole.

9. Add a layer of sauce and chicken.
10. Sprinkle on about half of the cheese.
11. Add another layer of tortillas and cover with the rest of the sauce.
12. Top with the rest of the cheese and bake for about 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Let me know if you try it! I'd love to know what you think!!!